1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an interlabial pad that is able to be worn by female wearer, being placed in an intimate contact between the labia.
2. Background Art
Conventionally, a sanitary napkin and a tampon are used generally as a female sanitary products. Here, there have been great efforts to prevent the leak of menstrual blood from gap caused by a poor contact state near the ostium vaginae as for the sanitary napkin. Moreover, as for the tampon, there have been great efforts for relieving a foreign feeling and discomfort when wearing a tampon product and intervaginal wearing trouble due to the nature of those products.
Under such situation, a sanitary product of the interlabial pad have attracted people as a sanitary product positioned between the sanitary napkin and the tampon in recent years. The interlabial pad is used by inserting its portion between the labia and bringing into contact with a labia inner face, it prevents the menstrual blood from leaking since it has higher adhesion to the body than that of the sanitary napkin, and the menstrual blood from being diffused and brought widely into contact with the body, so it is sanitary and clean. Moreover, the interlabial pad which has characteristics that it excels in a wear feeling, is comfortable because of being smaller than the sanitary napkin, and has lower psychological resistance on wearing than that of the tampon which is inserted into the vagina.
Unlike a sanitary napkins being fixed to an underwear or a tampon and being fixed by insertion into the vagina, the interlabial pad is usually used and fixed to the body by inserting it between the labia, which may make right and left phase shifts in body motions. Therefore, it is necessary that the interlabial pad can make right and left phase shifts flexibly to follow the wearer's body motions. That is, it is required to the motions of the labia corresponding to the asymmetric body motions with respect to the body's longitudinal plane of symmetry, which extends along the anteroposterior axis, like putting one foot in front of the other alternately in walking. If the interlabial pad cannot follow the body motions and falls from the wearer's interlabial space, the resulting leak of menstrual blood is a significant problem. The “right and left phase shifts” refer to a broad concept including asymmetric or separate changes of the right and left sides (The change includes changing positions and moving.).
As a conventional example of such device, an absorbent interlabial device is disclosed (Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-506168). The absorbent interlabial device comprises a liquid permeable topsheet, a liquid non permeable backsheet and an absorbent core positioned between the topsheet and backsheet. The length of the absorbent interlabial device is greater than about 60 mm and less than about 130 mm. The width of the device is between about 25 mm and about 50 mm. The device comprises an axis of preferred bending, located along the longitudinal centerline of the device. When the device is folded along this axis and is inserted into the wearer's interlabial space, the topsheet maintains contact with the walls of the wearer's labia.
When being inserted between the labia, the absorbent interlabial device is folded to be accommodated in the space. However, unlike a usual sanitary napkin, the interlabial pad is not fixed to the underwear or not fixed by insertion like a tampon. The interlabial pad is inserted between the labia in such condition that the pad may slip or shift and is not fixed as securely as the sanitary napkin or tampon. Therefore, with the wearer's body movement, slips between the absorbent interlabial device (equivalent to the interlabial pad) and the labia may tend to occur, which may make the wearer feel discomfort.